Cooling towers are huge cooling towers. CHP

How a thermal power plant works. aslan wrote on March 4th, 2012

Have you ever wondered where hot tap water comes from, heat in your pipes and electricity to charge your phone and run your favorite computer? The answers to these questions are under the cut.

On February 18, at the invitation of the "Territorial Administration for Heat Supply of the City of Ulyanovsk" OJSC "Volzhskaya TGC", I visited, together with other Ulyanovsk bloggers, CHPP-1 (thermal power plant), which is located in the Zasviyazhsky district of our city.

At the indicated place, a PAZik was waiting for us. On it, our group was taken to the "generator" of heat and light.
Having approached the CHPP, a security guard entered the bus, who, after talking with the driver and accompanying person, let us into the territory.
First, we were given a short tour by bus.

The height of the pipes shown in the photograph is approximately 185 meters. There are two such pipes on the territory of the CHP..

4.

And through these pipes, hot water begins its journey to our homes. (Photo 4)

See those wide pipes? Do you know what they are for and what they are called?
It turns out that these are cooling towers - devices for cooling a large amount of water with a directed flow of atmospheric air.
After the water comes to the desired state, it is sent to the cooling of the process equipment. By the way, the cost of one such cooling tower is over 500 million rubles.
It's funny, but before I thought that smoke was coming out of them, but now I found out that it was steam. Indeed, live and learn forever.

"What is this?" the child asked his mother, an employee of the thermal power plant.
"Factory for the production of clouds" - the kid heard in response.

The first combined heat and power plant in Ulyanovsk was built at an automobile plant. At the beginning of December 1946, the first steam boiler of the CHPP was put into operation, and on December 31, the first turbine gained momentum. At the beginning of 1947, the thermal power plant gave industrial current to the workshops of the automobile plant, and in 1951 to the Ulyanovsk power plant, with which it was connected by a 22 kV power transmission.

The construction of the main building, station facilities and installation of equipment were carried out at a high pace. On December 20, 1946, trial launches of the first boiler and the first turbogenerator began, and on December 31, at 16:00, the CHPP turbine generator was put into parallel operation with diesel power plants of the city and received a load of 1,500 kilowatts. This day went down in the history of the Ulyanovsk CHPP as the beginning of its industrial operation.

After we were brought to the main building, where the most important work is being done.
Here is an evacuation plan hanging on the first floor (photo 9):
:
9.

Dental, physiotherapy services are provided to CHP workers free of charge. They can also visit the sauna, gym, which are located on the territory of the CHP.

We went to the conference room, in which we were met by the director-chief engineer Dolgalev Viktor Antonovich.

We were asked to wear helmets as safety is strict here.

Ivan, the lead engineer for commissioning and testing, took us to the most interesting place, where energy is produced.
We walked along the corridor with such beautiful doors :))

All sorts of drawings on the windows:

And on the walls there are posters with the history of the creation of the station, information for workers, about the environment, the terrorist threat:

And here is the holy of holies:

Turbo generator that generates electricity. The power of its generator = 60 megawatts, frequency = 50 Hz.

A crane will move along the hall on rails fixed on the roof, which can move up to 20 tons of weight at a time. (photo 18)

A lot of different devices showing many parameters

Great attention is paid to fire safety at the CHP: fire extinguishers and fire valves on red pipes are everywhere so that you can immediately identify them:

Turning these valves...

Water is sprayed all over the hall through these red pipes:

This device shuts off the steam supply to the turbogenerator in the event of an emergency. This happens almost instantly.

Let's move on to the next section - the boiler room.
Water is heated in huge boilers. There are 5 or 6 in total :)

I can be a little mistaken, because it was terribly noisy on the spot. To hear at least something, we "clung around" Ivan from all sides. It was necessary to yell, only in this case the interlocutor could hear you :)

There are two types of fuel at the CHPP: the main fuel is gas and the reserve fuel oil. Their supply is regulated with the help of nozzles. During our visit, heating was carried out with the help of fuel oil (power engineers were asked to temporarily suspend work with gas due to its shortage. Many industrial enterprises begin active gas burning during cold weather, and since the CHP has the most reserve fuel, they ask to switch to it for them)

If you open the boiler damper, you can see how the fuel oil burns. Note that the temperature of its combustion is 2100 degrees:

35.

The capacity of the boilers is 480 tons of steam per hour.
36

The operation of the boilers (fuel supply, closing and opening of nozzles, etc.) is controlled by a computer:

In the control room, an abundance of lever buttons, sensors, recorders

New technologies are being introduced. Management is carried out using computers, absolutely all indicators can be seen by pressing a couple of buttons:

Remote Control:

Recorders. After an accident, thanks to them, you can find out why it happened. They are stored for 3 years, after which they are handed over to waste paper.

Memory of the past:

At the beginning of each heating season, the commission checks the operation of the CHP, if everything is in order, then a passport is issued:

And now you can see a brief description of the operation of the CHP, almost all Russian CHPs operate on this principle:

By the way, the installed electric power of this CHPP is 435 MW, the thermal power is 1539 Gcal/h

At the end of the walk, we were treated to tea and cakes, the director answered all our questions. The conversation was very interesting and informative. Here are excerpts from this conversation:
- the conditional border of the CHP is a fence, beyond its borders, all responsibility for the delivery of heat to citizens belongs to the territorial administration for heat supply, as well as various house management companies
You can drink hot tap water, it is even cleaner than cold water. Because the water supplied to the thermal power plant undergoes the most severe purification and practically becomes distilled. If there was no such cleaning, then the pipes and turbines would have to be changed almost every 2-3 years

Since this is an object of strategic importance, the FSB often arranges checks, throwing saboteurs into the territory, which lay dummies of explosives. Neither the police, nor the ambulance, nor the fire department know about these checks. So the FSB officers check the reaction and readiness of the guards. Fortunately, all checks passed successfully.
- In 1979, the largest accident in the history of the combined heat and power plant occurred. Due to low temperatures (35 degrees below zero), even at a young station, the block was glazed along the lower tier, frozen network pumps failed due to accumulated condensate, which resulted in a short circuit. The station was suspended for 2 weeks

The third post-war Mosenergo CHPP was built in the north-east of the city. It owes its names to the Shchelkovo highway and the unofficial, "mental" Izmailovo district (formally, the CHPP is located in the Metrogorodok district).

The decision to build a thermal power plant on the territory of the collective farm. Lenin was adopted in 1957. At that time there was no large industrial zone on this territory, some enterprises were subsequently founded near CHPP-23. By 1966-1968. 4 turbines with a capacity of 100 MW each were put into operation at once - you can see that, as at Khovrinskaya, 50-MW turbines were not used at the Izmailovskaya CHPP. In 1975-1982 4 more turbines were launched, but with a capacity of 250 MW each. By the time of the collapse of the USSR, CHPP-23 with a capacity of 1.4 GW was the most powerful in Moscow and the Moscow region. Only by the 2000s. it was bypassed by CHPP-26 in Biryulyovo, and then by the expanded CHPP-21.

The high power of CHPP-23 is evidenced by the lines through which its power is produced. In total, 8 power lines with a voltage of 220 kV and 6 power lines with a voltage of 110 kV leave the Izmailovskaya CHPP. In the future, 2 more 220 kV lines will supply electricity from CHPP-23 to the Krasnoselskaya substation, which will be part of the 220 kV pseudo-ring being designed in the center of Moscow.

A feature of CHPP-23 is its pipes with a height of approximately 245-250 m. Until the 2000s, when a new tower was built in the Oktyabrsky Radio Center, Triumph Palace and the skyscrapers of Moscow City, CHPP-23 pipes took 2nd and 3rd place in height among buildings in Moscow after the Ostankino TV tower.

As at CHPP-22, in the future, CHPP-23 will only re-mark turbines with an increase in capacity. No new power units will be built at the CHP until 2020.

Photo 23.1. CHPP-23 from the window of the 21st floor of the Moscow State University (distance ≈ 20 km). If you look closely, you can see the cooling towers to the right of the tall stacks. And the photo also included objects over the entire Sokolnicheskaya line from the "University" to the "Rokossovsky Boulevard".

Photo 23.4. Here are a few more. And, yes, on the left outside the photo frame there remains "Elk Island", the Moscow Ring Road, and then in general " the earth is rounding".

CHPP-25 "Ochakovskaya"

In the same way as CHPP-22 was built on the other side of Moscow relative to CHPP-21, opposite CHPP-23, in Ochakovo, in the 1970s. CHPP-25 was built. As a result, most of the capital was supplied with heat from large combined heat and power plants, and it became possible to gradually close the old inefficient small boiler houses.

The Ochakovskaya CHPP turned out to be located on the territory of the largest industrial zone in the south-west of Moscow. In this relatively young industrial zone, there are no heavy industry giants like the Moscow Oil Refinery, ZiL or AZLK. The industry in Ochakovo is mainly represented by food industry enterprises, among which the brewery of the same name is the most famous.

During the construction of CHPP-25, the use of 100-MW power units was abandoned. It was equipped with 2 small 60 MW turbines and as many as 5 250 MW turbines. The last 2 units of CHPP-25 were put into operation after the collapse of the USSR.

A feature of the Ochakovskaya CHPP is that it was the first among Mosenergo's CHPPs to build a switchgear with a voltage of 500 kV. However, the 500-kV line from CHPP-25 does not go far - just to the large substation "Ochakovo" standing behind the fence of the CHPP. This substation began operation long before the foundation of CHPP-25 - back in the 1950s. It was on it that the lines from the Cherepetskaya GRES (Tula region) entered, it was it that entered the Moscow energy ring, formed by 500-kV substations. So CHPP-25 is a rare case when a power plant is being built in close proximity to a previously existing large substation.

It is interesting that the construction base of Ochakovskaya CHPP-25 subsequently became a full-fledged building contractor - OOO PPSK (Industrial and Production Construction and Acquisition Cooperative) CHPP-25.

Like CHPP-22 and CHPP-23, CHPP-25 has not received new combined cycle units in the last decade.

CHPP-26 "Yuzhnaya"

The last Soviet thermal power plant Mosenergo is located near the Moscow Ring Road, on its inner side, in the south of the Zapadnoye Biryulyovo district. This is one of the least attractive areas of the capital for life, along with the same Kapotnya. Just a few hundred meters north of CHPP-26 was the same Pokrovskaya vegetable warehouse (founded in 1980 under the name "Brezhnevskaya"), which was first vandalized and then closed in the fall of 2013. The Biryulyovskaya industrial zone is filled with relatively small construction industries. It houses: a branch of the Ochakovsky Concrete Concrete Plant, plants for building mixtures, lumber, a division of Mostotrest. In the northern part of the industrial zone there is also one of the waste incinerators, where in 2007 a gas turbine power plant was installed on top.

The hot water boilers of the Yuzhnaya CHPP started operating in 1979, after 2 years the power plant began to supply current to the network. At this CHPP, the capacity of each turbine of the first stage was 80 MW, the second stage was represented by 4,250 MW turbines. Thus, this CHPP achieved the maximum level of aggregate concentration among Mosenergo's CHPPs. After the collapse of the USSR, the development of generating capacities at CHPP-26 stopped: the next 250 MW turbine was launched only in 1998.

The second stage of construction of CHPP-26 began in the second half of the 2000s. During 2007-2011 A combined-cycle power unit with a capacity of 420 MW was built at the Yuzhnaya CHPP, most of the equipment for which was supplied by the French "Alstom".

To date, CHPP-26's installed capacity has reached 1.84 GW, making it Mosenergo's largest CHPP. Moreover, even far from all regions of the country have such large power plants.

CHPP-26 has a rather original layout. Firstly, its pumping station is located 11 km from the CHPP itself - in Brateevo. Secondly, a 500 kV substation was built specifically for the output of power from CHPP-26, which became part of the Moscow Energy Ring. It is formally called the outdoor switchgear of CHPP-26, although in fact it is an independent substation connected to CHPP-26 by three 500 kV lines and four 220 kV lines.

Photo 26.1. CHP-26 in all its splendor.

Photo 26.2. Greenhouses?!

Photo 27.2. CHPP-27 from the shopping center "June". The new white boiler and turbine housing and the old blue-gray one are clearly visible.

Photo 27.3. Residential complex "Yaroslavsky", being built in the 16th microdistrict of Mytishchi by the PIK company. CHPP-27 can be seen on the right edge of the frame.

Photo 27.4. The progress of the construction of CHPP-27 (gif).

Installed capacity of post-war Mosenergo CHPPs (excluding CHPP-28)

CHPP-28 (MGD-CHP)

So, we are left with the last numbered CHPP Mosenergo, which does not fit into the previously considered historical series at all.

Until recently, it was a pilot industrial power plant, similar to the CHPP of MPEI or VTI. This CHPP was built for the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which is located not far from CHPP-21, on Izhorskaya Street.

Specialists of the JIHT in Soviet times developed a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator. The beauty of the MHD generator lies in the fact that the electric current in the windings is created due to the movement of a hot plasma flow in a magnetic field, and not the rotation of the rotor of the electric generator. An obvious advantage of the MHD generator is the absence of moving parts in it. However, the problem is the fact that for ionization the gas must be heated to impressive temperatures - more than 2,000 kelvin. The first MHD generators were built in the 1950s-1960s. in the USA. In 1965, an MHD unit U-02 with a power of only 200 kW was launched at the JIHT.

The next step was the construction of an experimental power plant based on an MHD generator. She became the future CHPP-28. An MHD plant with a capacity of 25 MW was built right next to the JIHT buildings and launched in 1971. In the 1980s. in Novomichurinsk, near the Ryazanskaya GRES, the construction of an industrial power unit based on an MHD generator began. However, before the collapse of the USSR, the MHD generator did not have time to be built, and in the 1990s. the power unit was completed according to the usual scheme. Subsequently, this MHD-TPP was attached to the Ryazanskaya GRES.

Now bringing to mind MHD generators does not seem to be an urgent task - too serious problems stand in the way. At such high temperatures, the service life of the electrodes turns out to be extremely low, which significantly reduces the economic parameters of the operation of the MHD power unit. As a result, it is necessary either to increase their stability, or to reduce the gas ionization temperature, which is not so simple.

In 1992, MHD-CHP was transferred from OIVT Mosenergo and renamed CHPP-28. The MHD generator was dismantled, and the power plant itself was reconstructed for a conventional steam power cycle. However, this power plant has remained a testing ground for testing modern technologies. So, in 1999, a heat pump was tested on it, in the late 2000s. it tested a CCGT based on a 50-megawatt gas turbine from the Moscow Salyut engine-building plant. However, already in 2009, CHPP-28 was connected to the nearby CHPP-21 as "line 28", and nothing is known about new test work at it.

March 23rd, 2013

Once, when we were driving into the glorious city of Cheboksary, from the east, my wife noticed two huge towers standing along the highway. "And what is it?" she asked. Since I absolutely did not want to show my ignorance to my wife, I dug a little in my memory and gave out a victorious one: "These are cooling towers, don't you know?". She was a little embarrassed: "What are they for?" "Well, there's something to cool, it seems." "And what?". Then I was embarrassed, because I did not know at all how to get out further.

Maybe this question has remained forever in the memory without an answer, but miracles do happen. A few months after this incident, I see a post in my friend feed z_alexey about the recruitment of bloggers who want to visit the Cheboksary CHPP-2, the same one that we saw from the road. Having to drastically change all your plans, it would be unforgivable to miss such a chance!

So what is CHP?

This is the heart of the CHP plant, and here the main action takes place. The gas entering the boiler burns out, releasing a crazy amount of energy. This is where Pure Water comes in. After heating, it turns into steam, more precisely into superheated steam, having an outlet temperature of 560 degrees and a pressure of 140 atmospheres. We will also call it "Pure steam" because it is formed from prepared water.
In addition to steam, we also have exhaust at the exit. At maximum power, all five boilers consume almost 60 cubic meters of natural gas per second! To remove the products of combustion, a non-childish "smoke" pipe is needed. And there is one too.

The pipe can be seen from almost any area of ​​the city, given the height of 250 meters. I suspect that this is the tallest building in Cheboksary.

Nearby is a slightly smaller pipe. Reserve again.

If the CHP plant is coal-fired, additional exhaust treatment is required. But in our case, this is not required, since natural gas is used as fuel.

In the second section of the boiler and turbine shop there are installations that generate electricity.

Four of them are installed in the engine room of the Cheboksary CHPP-2, with a total capacity of 460 MW (megawatts). It is here that superheated steam from the boiler room is supplied. He, under huge pressure, is sent to the turbine blades, forcing the thirty-ton rotor to rotate at a speed of 3000 rpm.

The installation consists of two parts: the turbine itself, and a generator that generates electricity.

And here is what the turbine rotor looks like.

Sensors and gauges are everywhere.

Both turbines and boilers can be stopped instantly in case of an emergency. For this, there are special valves that can shut off the supply of steam or fuel in a fraction of a second.

Interestingly, is there such a thing as an industrial landscape, or an industrial portrait? It has its own beauty.

There is a terrible noise in the room, and in order to hear a neighbor, you have to strain your hearing a lot. Besides, it's very hot. I want to take off my helmet and strip down to my T-shirt, but I can't do that. For safety reasons, short-sleeved clothing is prohibited at the CHP plant, there are too many hot pipes.
Most of the time, the workshop is empty, people appear here once every two hours, during a round. And the operation of the equipment is controlled from the Main Control Board (Group Control Panels for Boilers and Turbines).

This is what the duty station looks like.

There are hundreds of buttons around.

And dozens of sensors.

Some are mechanical and some are electronic.

This is our excursion, and people are working.

In total, after the boiler and turbine shop, at the output we have electricity and steam that has partially cooled down and lost part of its pressure. With electricity, it seems to be easier. At the output from different generators, the voltage can be from 10 to 18 kV (kilovolt). With the help of block transformers, it rises to 110 kV, and then electricity can be transmitted over long distances using power lines (power lines).

It is unprofitable to release the remaining "Clean steam" to the side. Since it is formed from "Pure Water", the production of which is a rather complicated and costly process, it is more expedient to cool it and return it to the boiler. So in a vicious circle. But with its help, and with the help of heat exchangers, you can heat water or produce secondary steam, which can be easily sold to third-party consumers.

In general, it is in this way that you and I receive heat and electricity in our homes, having the usual comfort and coziness.

Oh yes. Why are cooling towers needed anyway?

It turns out everything is very simple. The same heat exchangers are used to cool the remaining "Pure Steam" before being fed back into the boiler. It is cooled with the help of industrial water, at CHPP-2 it is taken directly from the Volga. It does not require any special training and can also be reused. After passing through the heat exchanger, process water is heated and goes to the cooling towers. There it flows down in a thin film or falls down in the form of drops and is cooled by the oncoming air flow created by the fans. And in ejection cooling towers, water is sprayed using special nozzles. In any case, the main cooling occurs due to the evaporation of a small part of the water. The cooled water leaves the cooling towers through a special channel, after which, with the help of a pumping station, it is sent for reuse.
In a word, cooling towers are needed to cool the water that cools the steam that works in the boiler-turbine system.

All work of the CHP is controlled from the Main Control Panel.

There is an attendant here at all times.

All events are logged.

Don't feed me bread, let me take pictures of the buttons and sensors...

On this, almost everything. In conclusion, there are a few photos of the station.

This is an old, no longer working pipe. Most likely it will be taken down soon.

There is a lot of propaganda at the enterprise.

They are proud of their employees here.

And their achievements.

It doesn't seem right...

It remains to add that, as in a joke - "I don't know who these bloggers are, but their guide is the director of the branch in Mari El and Chuvashia of OAO TGC-5, the IES of the holding - Dobrov S.V."

Together with the station director S.D. Stolyarov.

Without exaggeration - true professionals in their field.

And of course, many thanks to Irina Romanova, representing the press service of the company, for the perfectly organized tour.

Report of the correspondent of the newspaper "Pukhavitsky Naviny" Elena Shantyko.

The chimney of CHPP-5, I think, was seen by every resident of our district. And, probably, everyone knows that it is she who is the tallest building in the Pukhovshchina. Indeed, the height of the pipe is 240 meters, which is approximately the height of an 80-story building. And even if our pipe is not a record holder among its kind (the height of the pipe, for example, the Kharkiv CHPP is equal to the height of the Eiffel Tower and is 330 meters), however, our pipe has no competitors in the Minsk region. Yes, and in Belarus there are few such giants. For example: 374 meters is the height of the Slonim TV tower, the highest in Belarus.

However, not only the height of the pipe was the reason for my long-standing desire to learn more about this object, although initially, I confess, the thought of climbing one of the traffic lights visited me more than once. Nevertheless, interest in the pipe as a production facility that plays an important role in the operation of the station and requires a certain amount of attention was fundamental. And I nevertheless voiced my long-standing interest to the director of CHPP-5 V.V. Kiszko during his last visit to the power plant.

High-altitude chimneys are indeed an integral component of any modern thermal power plant, because they perform an extremely important function of removing gaseous emissions and dust from boilers and dispersing gaseous emissions and dust in the upper layers of the atmosphere, - says Vladimir Vladimirovich. - Therefore, pipes are special production facilities, engineering structures, maintenance which specialized enterprises are engaged in in Belarus.

And for the construction of the chimney of CHPP-5, a new enterprise SMU “Energovvysotspetsstroy” was also specially created, which, within the established timeframe, using new technologies and materials at the time of the construction of the station, ensured the construction of the facility, which was put into operation in 1999.

Now the inspection of building structures of the pipe every 5 years is carried out by the specialists of CJSC "Belspetsenergo".

They without fail examine the strength of all building structures, the foundation, the pipe shaft, the blind area, stairs, traffic light platforms, of which there are as many as five on our pipe, as well as the structures of the running staircase located along the outer contour of the pipe.

After such a thorough examination, specialists draw up a technical report, which gives recommendations for further maintenance of the facility. Then all the necessary organizational and technical measures related to the repair of the pipe are carried out.

Without fail (and more often than once every five years), the roll of the pipe is also determined. And here I cannot fail to mention that such a strong reinforced concrete structure always responds to adverse windy weather: anyone who is on the upper traffic light platforms can feel the fluctuations of the pipe.

The tip (this is the name of the upper part of the pipe) is generally in the most difficult service conditions, not only due to the ongoing fluctuations, but also due to the ingress of precipitation, intense condensation gases onto the inner surface of the pipe and the multiple freezing and thawing associated with this process, - says the head of the repair and construction shop of CHPP-5 Yuri Grigoryevich Samokhin. - Although the main mechanical and wind load falls, of course, on the supporting pipe trunk. Special attention is paid to its condition by specialists during the inspection of the object.

However, it is impossible to think that the pipe from examination to examination ceases to be of interest to power engineers. There is a special instruction for the operation of this facility, and each workshop has its own responsibilities.

For employees of the electrical department, for example, the obligation is assigned to monitor the serviceability of lamps installed at traffic lights and ensuring the safety of air transport.

75 percent of the lamps must work without fail, - says the head of the electrical shop, Yuri Nikolayevich Zhirkov. - Therefore, the operational staff of the shop daily makes a visual inspection of the pipe and sites, and if necessary, we independently replace the lamps. We try to carry out this work in the summer, because climbing the pipe is not an easy task. As a rule, a business trip upstairs takes a whole day.

Imagine what it takes to climb to the height of an 80-story building on your own and along the outer contour of the pipe ... Chill comes to the heart, doesn't it? It’s not for you to drive up in an elevator ... Although there was such a fact in history. During construction, the elevator inside the pipe functioned. And the old-timers of the station went upstairs to satisfy their curiosity. And for their courage they were rewarded with the landscapes that opened their eyes. They say that from above, from a bird's eye view, you can see not only our entire region, but even the capital.

Now, of course, no one goes on an excursion to the pipe. Only people with permission to carry out work at height are allowed to work on it. The ascent is carried out with all precautions, with obligatory rest. Therefore, such a business trip takes almost the entire working day.

Speaking about our pipe, one cannot but say that progress has literally touched it too: for several years the pipe has been used as a holder for antennas of TV and mobile communication transmitters (Velcom and Life). Due to the high antenna installation height, the zone of reliable communication of popular operators has become larger.

In order to take a photo of the chimney, Yu.G. Samokhin we go up to the top floor of the administrative building. From its roof to the chimney, a quite promising view for a photo opens up. And the station itself is visible at a glance. And what if we were at least at the height of the first traffic light platform?! It would probably be much more interesting. And then I understand that, despite the chill in my chest from the mere thought of height, I envy those who at least once in their life went on a business trip to the pipe ...

However, until mankind has learned to get rid of gaseous waste from enterprises and power plants, without throwing these wastes far into the atmosphere, pipes will be built, and the construction of these structures will remain the most difficult and interesting engineering task.

The highest chimney in the world was built in 1987 in the USSR, and is now located on the territory of Kazakhstan. To a height of 420 m, it diverts emissions from the Ekibastuz GRES-2, which generates electricity from local high-ash coal. This pipe is slightly inferior in height to the Canadian Inco Superstack with its 385 m, erected in 1971.

In the 21st century, nothing like this was built - today the emphasis is on treatment facilities that seriously reduce the toxicity of emissions. This, however, does not mean that pipes have lost their relevance - it just became possible to build them lower, but not so much: pipes above 200 m are being built today. They are not as spectacular as skyscrapers, but many of the engineering problems that have to be solved in the construction of ultra-tall buildings are also present in the work of pipe layers - yes, that's what the chimney builders are called.

One of the final stages of pipe construction is its coloring. There can be no liberties here: the pipe is a high-rise object and must be clearly visible to the crews of aircraft.

Brick receded

The classic and very first material for the construction of chimneys was brick. While the pipes remained low, everything was fine, but as their height increased, it turned out that the brick had its own strength limits and did not work well in compression. However, if you choose a stronger brick and binder mortars with special qualities, then records are possible in this area. Back in 1919, the American company Custodis Chimney in the city of Anaconda, Montana, erected the world's tallest brick pipe to remove gases from many copper smelting furnaces. The tube has a conical shape (diameter 23 m at the base and 18 m at the top) and goes into the sky at 178.3 m. The thickness of its brick walls at the base is 180 cm.

This record holder had no followers. In the coming decades, reinforced concrete became the most popular structural material. Reinforced concrete pipes are still being built, although there are already alternatives in the form of metal and plastic. To find out what modern giant chimneys are like, PM went to St. Petersburg, where the headquarters of CJSC Korta is located. This company designs and builds tall chimneys, cooling towers, as well as repairs and maintains them in 40 regions of Russia.

When erecting a reinforced concrete pipe in winter, especially when it comes to sliding formwork, the construction site is surrounded by a so-called greenhouse, where the positive temperature is maintained with the help of a heater.

“Videos on the Internet, in which young people thirsty for adrenaline jump from high tubes with bungee and parachutes, are perceived without enthusiasm in our professional environment,” says Alina Smirnova, General Director of CJSC Korta. “Those daredevils take risks for the sake of risk, and the work of a pipe-layer involves risk by necessity. Until now, working at height is hard, mostly manual labor, where inattention and neglect of safety precautions can cost lives.” A cubic meter of concrete poured near the ground and a cubic meter of concrete poured at a height of 150 m differ enormously in cost, experts tell us. To verify the validity of this statement, it is worth understanding how a modern reinforced concrete chimney is arranged and how it is built.

Getting closer to the sky

Everything, of course, begins with the foundation, and here analogies with a skyscraper suggest themselves. Like the core of a high-rise building, the chimney is a rod that cantilevered into the base. Both under the future pipe and under the future skyscraper, a concrete slab is being poured. The slab may or may not be supported by piles, but in the latter case, its area will have to be significantly increased. Since chimneys are built, as a rule, in cramped conditions in industrial areas, piles are usually used. A so-called glass is installed above the stove - the round base of the future pipe.

A lifting head is installed on the shaft elevator (lattice structure), to which a working platform with external formwork will be attached.

The construction of a pipe is somewhat similar to the monolithic construction of buildings - it gradually grows upwards. The only difference is that at the disposal of the pipelayers are not spacious floors, but a space limited by the diameter of the pipe - only a few meters. There are two main pipe construction methods, climbing formwork and sliding formwork. The first method is technologically simpler, cheaper, but inferior to the second in the speed of work and in the quality of a reinforced concrete pipe shaft.

If the pipe is erected using the climbing formwork method, then on the foundation (inside the future pipe) an stackable lattice structure is installed - a “mine elevator”. It is used to lift up building materials (rebar, concrete), and also serves as a support for the electromechanical lifting mechanism - the “lifting head”. A round platform is suspended from the head, from which the outer part of the formwork hangs. The internal (adjustable) part of the formwork is mounted additionally. The formwork is assembled, fixed, reinforcement is installed in it, concrete mortar is poured there. After the concrete hardens and gains structural strength, the head raises the platform by 2.5 m. Everything is repeated again. Thus, the pipe grows in rings, and each of these rings has an internal ledge, the so-called console. Why is she?

What are the pipes crying about?

The fact is that in addition to the outer barrel of a reinforced concrete pipe, there is also an inner shell, the so-called lining. It is made, as a rule, from fire and acid-resistant bricks. The lining (in domestic designs) also consists of separate rings, each of which rests on its console. In western pipes, the lining is usually a one-piece separate barrel, which is installed inside the main one. Between the lining and the reinforced concrete shaft, a heat-insulating layer of mineral wool is made, or even just an empty void.

The task of lining and thermal insulation is to save the reinforced concrete shaft from the action of exhaust gases. Firstly, gases are very hot; in glass production, for example, their temperature sometimes reaches 400 °. But more than that, the exhaust gases also have aggressive properties. They most often contain sulfur compounds. “If the pipe is designed incorrectly or its operating conditions are changed,” Alina Smirnova explains, “then a very unpleasant thing can happen: a “dew point” zone will appear right in the pipe shaft at a certain height and gaseous waste will begin to condense. It must be understood that in the presence of water vapor, which is always present in the pipe, sulfur compounds can give sulfuric acid, and acid rain will fall right in the pipe. Aggressive condensate flowing down the lining is a great danger. With a strong temperature difference between the gases inside the pipe and the air outside, moisture migration occurs: condensate penetrates into the reinforced concrete shaft and corrodes the reinforcement and stone.

The construction of the final part of the foundation for the chimney - the so-called glass. First, the reinforcement is mounted, then the concrete form is created.

Sometimes it appears on the outer surface of the pipe in the form of whitish spots, and in winter it turns into huge icicles. Then they say: the trumpet is crying. To exclude such phenomena, the lining is coated with special compounds that reduce its permeability to condensate. But in pipes that exhaust gases during coal combustion (in Russia there are many coal mines and many thermal power plants with them), lining protection occurs naturally: the plaque that forms perfectly protects the brick.

Not cheap sliding

In the 1960s, a more advanced technology for the construction of reinforced concrete pipes was developed in Sweden - the sliding formwork method. In this case, the working platform with the formwork moves from zero, rising on jacking rods that remain in the concrete body. The formwork height is 1.2 m, but the concrete is laid in layers of 20–30 cm. As soon as the layer acquires a structural strength of 5 MPa, the next one is laid. The sliding formwork method makes it possible to build up a pipe under construction by 3 m or more per day, the process is almost continuous, and there is no need to disassemble and assemble the formwork.

“However, this is a complex and expensive technology,” says Andrey Kuznetsov, production director of CJSC Korta. “Slipform pipe construction equipment is produced by only two companies in the world, and its operation is so complicated that we have to use it only under the supervision of foreign supervisors representing the manufacturer. Only the Austrians know how to build conical structures by this method. In addition to high cost, in Russia the sliding formwork method has two more disadvantages. Firstly, it is practically impossible to use it at sub-zero temperatures (due to the constant supply of a liquid solution that can freeze), and secondly, the technology involves uninterrupted supply of a solution for, say, two months, and not in every region of our country. country's production capacity allows this.

But no matter how sophisticated formwork technology is, working at height places high demands on people. If the pipe under construction is not equipped with elevator equipment (and it is not installed up to certain heights), only climbing to a height of 100-150 m is a decent waste of time and effort. Working at height is not easy and psychologically - the fear of heights is inherent in a person from birth. As we were told, some pipelayers, who successfully work on 120-meter pipes, flatly refuse to work on 200-meter pipes. Scary! Upstairs, on a small platform, there is no place for heavy equipment - workers use wheelbarrows and many different hand tools to pour mortar into the formwork. A cube of concrete, poured at a height, is also made “golden” by the need to ensure the safety of pipelines, and this costs a lot of money. “Saving on safety allows some companies to offer low prices,” says Andrey Kuznetsov, “but in the end this can lead to tragic consequences, such as the death of three workers during the repair of the Konakovskaya GRES pipe in May this year. People fell down with the cradle, which, obviously, did not pass the required tests.

iron argument

However, reinforced concrete pipes with their labor-intensive technologies have an alternative - metal structures. Metal pipes are freestanding (in this case, a lot of metal is needed) or fixed in a carrier portal that looks like a lattice truss. The construction of such pipes is technologically simpler, they are more maintainable, but less durable.

“The choice in favor of a metal pipe should be based on economic calculations,” Andrey Kuznetsov explains. - If a reinforced concrete pipe is built up, then a metal pipe must be assembled from ring elements using cranes. Cranes capable of lifting pipe parts to a height of 150 m are unique machines, the rent of which can cost a million rubles a day or more. To reduce the cost of the process, we are now experimenting with another technology. A lattice easy-to-assemble truss is built over the entire height of the pipe, and then a pipe of metal rings is mounted inside it. It is built up either from above (then the sections are lifted up with a winch) or from below (then the constructed part of the pipe is lifted on jacks). In this case, heavy cranes are not needed.”